Capitalism and the Patrick Bond Patrick Bond University of KwaZulu University of KwaZulu- -Natal Natal environment School of Development Studies and School of Development Studies and Centre for Civil Society, Durban Centre for Civil Society, Durban presented to the presented to the International Labour Research International Labour Research and Information Group and Information Group and Information Group and Information Group Globalisation School Globalisation School 3 October 2011 3 October 2011 cartoons by cartoons by Zapiro Zapiro
Durban’s COP17 ‘ Conference of Polluters’ 28 Nov-9 Dec 2011 International Convention Centre
UNFCCC civil society ‘C17’ unity at ‘civilised’ society in Africa Pavillion Durban Univ of Technology negotiations marquee (parking lot) alternatives summit
last time SA hosted global environment conference: WSSD World $ World $ummit ummit on $ on $ustainable ustainable Development Development Johannesburg, 31 August 2002: 30,000 protested UN ‘type-two partnerships’, privatisation of water, emissions trading, neoliberalism
Major sites for neoliberal plus sustainable dev. discourses
their idea: World Bank’s ‘impeccable’ logic of capitalist pollution trade DATE: December 12, 1991 TO: Distribution FR: Lawrence H. Summers ‘I think the economic logic behind ‘I think the economic logic behind dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that…’ (preparing for original Rio Earth Summit, secret memo of Bank chief economist Larry Summers, later US Treasury Secretary and Obama’s economic manager – full memo: www.whirledbank.org)
our theory: ‘impeccable logic’ of capitalist/non-capitalist relations Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ‘Accumulation of capital periodically ‘Accumulation of capital periodically bursts out in crises crises and spurs capital on to bursts out in a continual extension of the market. Capital a continual extension of the market. Capital cannot accumulate without the aid of non- capitalist organisations, nor … can it tolerate their continued existence side by side with itself. Only the continuous and progressive Only the continuous and progressive disintegration of non disintegration of non- -capitalist organisations capitalist organisations makes accumulation of capital possible.’ makes accumulation of capital possible.’ , , The Accumulation of Capital, 1919.
http://davidharvey.org
Ugandan marxist Dani Nabudere’s ‘financialization’ thesis vindicated The Crash of International International Finance Capital and The Rise and Fall of Money Capital source: The Economist
‘overaccumulation’ and GDP stagnation: source of decline in finance-adjusted US profits crisis of surplus value extraction ‘temporal fix’ US corporate profits derived much less from manufacturing products; much greater sources of profits came from abroad; ‘spatial fix’ profits also came more from returns on financial assets. Source: Gerard Dumenil and Dominique Levy
context: US economy as core site of overaccumulation and financialisation Source: John Bellamy Foster and Fred Magdoff, 2009 Financial profits as % of total profits when crisis sets in, 3 displacement techniques: ‘shifting’, ‘stalling’, ‘stealing’ the spatial fix, temporal fix and accumulation by dispossession
can ‘global governance’ fix world crises? recent record of elites: repeated top-down failures • last solution: 1987 Montreal Protocol on CFCs (ozone hole) but since then: • dominant neoliberals (1990s), neoconservatives (2000s) • World Bank, IMF Annual Meetings: trivial reforms (Chinese voting power rising a few %, Africa stagnant) • ‘Post-Washington Consensus’: Stiglitz fired, 1999 • ‘Post-Washington Consensus’: Stiglitz fired, 1999 • UN Millennium Development Goal rhetoric, 2000 • WTO Doha Agenda 2001: failure • Monterrery Financing for Development summit, 2002, then G20 global financial reregulation, 2008-09: failure • renewed wars in Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa • UN Security Council reform attempts failed, 2005 • G8 aid promises (especially for Africa) broken, 2005 • Kyoto Protocol on climate: Copenhagen Accord tragedy
Copenhagen Accord, COP 15, December 2009 • Jacob Zuma (SA) • Lula da Silva (Brazil) • Barack Obama (USA) • Wen Jiabao (China) • Manmohan Singh (India)
world’s biggest polluter world’s biggest polluter
lead US climate negotiator Todd Stern, on demand for recognising climate debt? 'The sense of guilt or culpability or reparations – I just categorically Maldives cabinet gets $50m in US aid = U-turn, reject that' to support Copenhagen Stern thus rejects core Stern thus rejects core Ethiopian tyrant principle: ‘polluter pays’ Meles Zenawi: UN Advisory Group on Finance cochair halved AU’s WikiLeaks revealed WikiLeaks revealed 2009 demands for climate debt (Feb ‘10) Stern/Pershing Stern/Pershing (Feb ‘10) bribery and bullying: bribery and bullying: Ethiopia, Maldives, Ethiopia, Maldives, Bolivia, Ecuador Bolivia, Ecuador
concept of ‘ecological debt’ now recognised in serious in serious research
who owes in 2000? GHG/capita by country Australia USA Saudi Arabia Canada Kazakhstan Russia Russia
who loses from climate change? a ‘Climate Demography Vulnerability Index’ main losers: Central America, Central America, central South America, the Arabian Peninsula, Southeast Asia and much of Africa
Green Climate Fund – $100bn/year by 2020 (promised), co-chaired by SA’s Trevor Manuel • $100 billion isn’t enough! • direct access? ‘Basic Income Grants’ preferable to corrupt ‘aid’ (Manuel opposed) • False Solutions to be funded • False Solutions to be funded • Manuel wants carbon trade Robert Zoellick to provide 50% of GCF revenue World Bank president • World Bank is interim GCF trustee despite terrible record of managing climate and development funding
the World Bank Should Robert be lead climate financier? Zoellick • fossil fuel loans: $6.3 billion in 2009-10 year , up from $1.6 bn in 2006-07; • commodity export dogma; • resource curse financing; • carbon trading promotion; • Robert Zoellick qualifications: . .. . .. - WB prez after Wolfowitz was fired - WB prez after Wolfowitz was fired - Goldman Sachs int’l banker, 2006-7 - US State Dep’t #2, 2005-6 breaks . - US Trade Rep to WTO, 2001-5 everything - Bush Jr’s Florida vote-counter, 2000 he touches - Enron ‘senior political advisor’, 1999 - neocon Project for a New American Century founder, 1998 (‘ invade Iraq’ ) - Fannie Mae #2, 1993-98 - Presidential deputy chief of staff to George Bush Sr, 1992 - US Treasury: Deputy Assistant a very worried panda Secretary during S&L crash, 1980s
Should the IMF be run by the likes of…
Cancun COP 16 revived market fix in theory, as a ‘castle in the sky’… but in reality, relying upon carbon markets is like building that castle building that castle atop quicksand! – given the market’s • corruption, • fraud, • thievery, • stagnation and • speculation
carbon trading gimmick: in 1997, US vice-president Al Gore (later a carbon trader) pushed for Kyoto to include emissions markets, in exchange for Washington’s in exchange for Washington’s promised support … promised support … promise soon broken ‘The European Union has adopted this US innovation and is making it work effectively there.’ ( An Inconvenient Truth , p. 252)
emissions market’s five major crashes, 2006-09, 2010 stagnation, 2011 theft-closure, 2012 denouement? does EU carbon trading ‘work effectively’? impossible to finance renewable impossible to finance renewable energy with such low carbon prices energy with such low carbon prices
how does carbon trading Plantar’s ‘green desert’ look in the South? timber plantation alien-invasive trees grow 10 alien-invasive trees grow 10 years, then die and become charcoal for pig-iron, for Brazilian auto industry
Durban, South Africa: Bisasar Road $15 million CDM pilot conversion of methane-to-electricity at environmentally- racist toxic dump Africa’s largest landfill Africa’s largest landfill placed in black residential placed in black residential suburb (Clare Estate) by apartheid; municipality refused to close it thanks to World Bank 2002 investment hype: Prototype Carbon Fund Sajida Khan’s credits family home
Sajida Khan (1952-2007) though felled by cancer from dump, she had co- hosted ‘Durban Group for Climate Justice’ (2004) and her challenge to Bisasar methane flaring temporarily rebuffed World Bank in 2005 project went ahead in 2008-09 and currently CDM is paid just €14/tonne
new critique of carbon trading www.storyofcapandtrade.org
Order your copy from Order your copy from http://www.ukznpress.co.za http://www.ukznpress.co.za pbond@mail.ngo.za pbond@mail.ngo.za
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